diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 44f9e4c4a2..281d10b9f8 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
  * Revert CASSANDRA-7807 (tracing completion client notifications) (CASSANDRA-9429)
  * Add ability to stop compaction by ID (CASSANDRA-7207)
 Merged from 2.1:
+2.1.6
+ * Optimize range tombstone memory footprint (CASSANDRA-8603)
  * Use configured gcgs in anticompaction (CASSANDRA-9397)
 
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/RangeTombstone.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/RangeTombstone.java
index c69ea8c9b4..e56c5f0049 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/RangeTombstone.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/RangeTombstone.java
@@ -272,6 +272,10 @@ public class RangeTombstone extends Interval<Composite, DeletionTime> implements
         {
             Composite max = type.serializer().deserialize(in);
             DeletionTime dt = DeletionTime.serializer.deserialize(in);
+            // If the max equals the min.end(), we can avoid keeping an extra ByteBuffer in memory by using
+            // min.end() instead of max
+            Composite minEnd = min.end();
+            max = minEnd.equals(max) ? minEnd : max;
             return new RangeTombstone(min, max, dt);
         }